Love & War Book 1 in The Arcadia Falls Chronicles

by Jennifer Malone Wright

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  One of the things that bothered me the most about having to share my room with Alice was that when I wanted to be alone, I couldn’t. That evening, everyone pretty much steered clear and left me alone when they realized things weren’t right with Drew and me.

  Monday droned on at school, and I skipped dinner because I knew Drew would be there. Shortly after they finished eating, Alice crept into the bedroom. I lay on the purple comforter and stared at the ceiling and thought about how I was going to fix the problem.

  "Chloe?"

  "Leave me alone." I rolled over onto my side.

  She crawled onto the bed beside me. "Maybe you should talk to Drew. He seems pretty upset, too. I don’t know what happened, but it can’t be so bad you can’t fix things."

  "It is that bad, Alice. He saw Gavin kiss me."

  "Hmmm." She thought for a bit. "That is bad, but if he kissed you, I’m sure it was obvious that you didn’t instigate it."

  "I kissed him back. This wasn’t a peck on the cheek."

  "Oh."

  I wanted to start crying all over again. I knew how I would feel if I had seen that happen between him and Christina. I would have been furious, and there would have been more to deal with than Drew’s method of silent treatment.

  "I know I have to talk to him," I told her.

  We were both quiet for a while, and then Alice stood. "You said you were going to try to help me with the magic stuff. Did you want to work on some of that now? It might take your mind off of things."

  I sighed. I wanted to procrastinate, but I told her I would help her. It needed to be done. She was right, too. It might take my mind off of stuff.

  "All right. I suppose it’s time to stop wallowing and get on with my life. I know things will be okay."

  I went into the bathroom to get both of the candles that were sitting on the counter and brought them into the bedroom. Setting them down on the cool hardwood floor of my bedroom, I sat cross-legged and gestured for Alice to sit opposite me. Once she was settled, I held out my finger and let the fire come. When a little flame appeared at the tip of my finger, I smiled and held it to the wick of one of the candles. I didn’t light the other one. I left that one for Alice.

  "In all those books,"—I extinguished my flame—"it says fire is one of the more basic elements a witch will learn in the beginning. I am pretty sure I can help you with that. I receive my power from angels and demigods, but you will get yours from nature, from everything around you, and the pure energy in the air."

  I felt strange, like I knew exactly what I was doing and was supposed to be doing it. Like the words were being fed to me to say just the right thing to Alice.

  "Now, to start, close your eyes and think about bringing all the energy into your body. Try to mentally fill yourself with it."

  Alice closed her eyes and held her hands out palm up.

  She opened her eyes after a few minutes of sitting there and nothing happening.

  "Nothing," she sighed, exasperated.

  "You have to concentrate. For me, it happens when I imagine that I’m literally pulling from the energy around me." I thought for a minute. "Maybe if you concentrate on pulling from the earth, like the trees and plants and things like that. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure you’re not going to make fire from your palms like I do. So maybe you should focus that energy on the candle. Try to light the other candle."

  She nodded. "All right."

  Again, she closed her eyes. This time she left her hands down on her legs. She seemed more relaxed this time. While I watched, she breathed in deeply through her nose and out her mouth in a meditational way. I said nothing, keeping my own energy at bay so she didn’t accidentally pull from me. I wasn’t sure that could happen, but I had read a bit on channeling. I didn’t want her to accidentally channel me. She needed to learn her own focus first.

  The wick sparked.

  I gasped unintentionally, and Alice’s eyes flew open. "What?"

  I shook my head. "Try again! The wick on the candle sparked!"

  Her eyes lit up and her cheeks flushed with warmth. "It did?"

  "Yes." I nodded vigorously "Try again!"

  I think the spark gave her confidence. Confidence meant a lot when trying to focus energy. She closed her eyes again. That time, it took far less time for the candle to spark. I smiled while she breathed and focused, because I knew it was going to work. We had done it.

  "Keep going," I urged

  The flame jumped to life as a gigantic lick of orange, and then settled to normal-sized candle flame.

  "Open your eyes, Alice." I knew my cheesy grin had to be from ear to ear. She opened her eyes and saw the flame of the candle burning bright.

  "I did it," she whispered.

  "You did it!" I whispered back, excitedly.

  She shook her head. "You didn’t do this, did you?"

  My smile disappeared. "Why would I do that?"

  "To make me think I can, for confidence or something."

  "Actually, that thought never occurred to me. This one is all you."

  She finally let herself smile. "Let’s do it again!"

  And we did, over and over and over again for hours, until Alice merely had to close her eyes and the flame would appear.